Speaking to reporters on his way to Brazil, Pope Benedict has backed Mexican bishops who have threatened excommunication for parliamentarians who voted to legalise abortion in Mexico City.

The Age reports that the Pope was responding to a reporter's question whether he supported Mexican Church leaders threatening to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who last month voted to legalise abortion in Mexico City.

"Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ," he said.

"They (Mexican Church leaders) did nothing new, surprising or arbitrary. They simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the Church... which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment (of life)".

Under Church law, someone who knowingly does or backs something which the Church considers a grave sin, such as abortion, inflicts what is known as "automatic excommunication" on themselves.

The Pope said parliamentarians who vote in favour of abortion have "doubts about the value of life and the beauty of life and even a doubt about the future".

“Benedict backs excommunication for pro-abortion pollies”
I kinda like the original title. You should ask the mods to put the original back on your post as this cuts down on the duplicate posts. Hard to search to see if it has been posted w/out the original title. Editorial comments can go in parantheses after the title.

20
posted on 05/16/2007 2:07:53 PM PDT
by dynachrome
("Where am I? Where am I going? Why am I in a handbasket?")

Another play by my rules or Ill take my ball and go home post. Man, its going to be a long time until next November.

Voters are supposed to demand that candidates play by their rules. That is what parties are about. Parties have platforms and the candidates are supposed to stick to them because the voters believe in the platforms and want them carried out. I know this is a hard concept for Rudybots to grasp but that is the way it works.

If you are a republican you are supposed to be conservative. You are not supposed to condone murder, you are not supposed to try to trash the 2nd amendment, you are supposed to uphold the laws of the country, I.E.: deporting illegals and securing the border.

Yep, if Rudy won't play by those rules I will definitely be voting for an independent if he gets the nomination, because it will mean the republican party has fallen to the liberals.

This one's not inconsistent with Catholic teaching. The Vatican City itself had the death penalty on the books until 1969, so it's unlikely that all the popes and cardinals up to that point weren't Catholic . . .

I agree that Rudy is trying to square the circle with his absurd position on abortion. If killing children is wrong, then it's goofy to assert someone has a right to "choose" it. If I choose bank-robbery, is Rudy going to back me up?

The brilliant thing about Catholic theology is that it doesn't let you play Three-Card Monte with morality. If you're doing wrong, it just crushes you with the leverage of logic. (See Thomas Aquinas.) Everything has been thought through, and human nature doesn't change.

3. Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.

Very misleading title. Excommunication is the most serious ecclesiastical penalty levied against a member of the Roman Catholic Church. It is a seldom used punishment to discipline unrelenting defiance or other serious violations of church rules, especially by those who are accused of "spreading division and confusion among the faithful" -- meaning, in practice, that the option of excommunication is more likely to be enforced when the disobedient Catholic is a visible and presumably influential public figure (such as a politician), but only rarely in the cases of non-public figures. Excommunication is never a merely "vindictive penalty" (designed solely to punish), but is always a "medicinal penalty" intended to pressure the person into changing their behavior or statements, repent and return to full communion.

Last I knew, the Pope had not excommunicated Giuliani (or any other politician I am aware of) therefore Giuliani is still a Catholic.

33
posted on 05/16/2007 2:14:49 PM PDT
by Ben Mugged
(Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.)

Pope John Pauls 1995 encyclical on bioethics, Evangelium Vitae. When outlawing abortion is politically impossible, the pope held, a politician could vote for a law that permits some abortions, if its the most restrictive result feasible and the alternative would be a more liberal standard.

When it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality, the pope wrote. This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects.

49
posted on 05/16/2007 2:40:07 PM PDT
by Ben Mugged
(Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.)

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